Google+ Adds Page View Count

Wondering how many people have seen your Google+ content? Now you can find out. Here's what you need to know about the new feature.

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Google+ wants you to know that it's no ghost town. Yesterday the social network added a new feature to users' profiles that displays the total number of times your content has been seen by others. This number includes collective views for photos, posts, and your profile page since October 2012.

You can find this statistic on any Google+ page, including business pages, below the user's profile photo and next to his or her follower count. Google+, which launched in 2011, boasts more than 540 million active users, but almost half don't visit the social network. In comparison, more than 1 billion monthly active users visit Facebook every month.

This isn't the first time Google has shared account statistics with users. People who upload photos to Google+ can track each photo's clicks. This detail is listed below each image, but only if your photo has more than 250 views. This is the only content type that Google+ breaks down -- it does not yet show views for other content you post. In February, Google added new analytics for page managers. If you manage a page that is linked to a website that uses Google Analytics, you can view your monthly metrics from your Google+ dashboard.

Google+ makes your view count visible to everyone by default, but you can change this setting to make it private. To start, open Google+ and click the Home button in the upper left corner. Then click Settings and scroll to Profile.

You'll see a checkbox to the left of "Show how many times your profile and content have been viewed" -- uncheck it to remove this statistic from your profile. You can change this setting only on the desktop version of Google+.

Google+ isn't the only social network that shares some details about content reach. Last week, some Twitter users noticed that its iOS app displayed how many people saw their tweets. Twitter did not confirm whether it plans a broader rollout of the feature.

This is the first update Google+ has launched since January, when it introduced a new feature that lets users who have Gmail and Google+ accounts email anyone who also has both accounts, even if the user doesn't know the person's email address. Google said that this change, which is on by default, will be useful for people who know each other but haven't yet exchanged email addresses.

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Kristin Burnham currently serves as InformationWeek.com's Senior Editor, covering social media, social business, IT leadership and IT careers. Prior to joining InformationWeek in July 2013, she served in a number of roles at CIO magazine and CIO.com, most recently as senior ... View Full Bio

Just disovered I had over 38 thousand views. Not one person I'm connected to on Google+ actually uses it, so where are all these clicks coming from? Really hoping this is just a bug and I wasn't googled that often. Deleted my page regardless.

The Google+ numbers have always seemed inflated to me, too, and it's hard to look at it as anything but a ghost town. I'm not sure if the addition of this counter will change that, but I know some people will disagree. There are pockets of very dedicated users who prefer this social network over all the others.

I think you bring up a good point. While Google+, no doubt, added this feature to show us that people do use the site, could surfacing these stats have the opposite effect? Like you, I think many will be surprised by how many views their profile and content has got in the last few years. If people aren't using the site, could this encourage users to close them down?

Is it possible for google plus members to find out exactly who viewed their profile? also, is it possible for google plus members to find out if someone viewed their profile a lot, even though google plus says that the gmail account is not available for this organization, and to please contact your administrator?

I have to confess. I too previously laughed at all things Google+ But i've a turned a new leaf. I haven't started using it as a social network yet, but I back up my phone photos, I share photos privately with my boyfriend, I've used google hangout to videochat in a group for free. And more. While we have all been mocking google as a social network, the ecosystem has been plowing along at adding lots of useful features. Since just about everybody with a gmail account or an android phone is a sneeze away from being a member of google+ anyways...whether they know it or not...whether they like it or not... my prediction is the time will come when facebook fatigue will cause a tipping point situation where the tides turn and suddenly google+ is "hip and cool enough" as a viable alternative. And google+ will be right there, waiting and ready to accept everyone because it will be so "easy" to convert + the many, many features will have been ironed out.

I wanted to find out how they calculate it . Being IM I thought I was safe from BS posts that basicly state nothig useful . We know they are doing this showing Fails nothinf is a Fail unless you give up .

I would be very surprised if Facebook even now actrually has 1 Billion users . They have scammed The US GOV> selling Likes that were useless. From Like Farms (where do you get your likes ?) FraudBook now says 1 Bilion Active users . Lets see what happens if Facebook eliminated allo the fake accounts by Qualifying all accounts by isp and verification to prove all accounts are REAL FraudBook. Took Millions of people gave them Free Accounts . Then sell their info , blatently Rip people off by using Like Farms . Now they stole your friends who like you not some ad FakeBook decideds I want to see. FRaudBook is on its way out and the sharing less than 10% of content with MY Friends not thiers is just a GreedBook.

BY someone who showed he is a douchebag when he created the company as shown in the movie .,

As far as INFO Week WTF is this Drivel I thought you folks were pros . This post is Bubble Gum insert quality .

Christine I know you are much better than this . How about some of you media folks Call GreedBook out on making all accopunts that are fake be deleted . Bet Fakebook will be shown to have less they 1 Billion & less that 600 mil actual users .

The use of social media for a host of business purposes is rising. Indeed, social is quickly moving from cutting edge to business basic. Organizations that have so far ignored social - either because they thought it was a passing fad or just didnít have the resources to properly evaluate potential use cases and products - must start giving it serious consideration.

Social media is critical in the age of digital business. How can IT help? First, work with the marketing team to set up social networking programs on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, at minimum. Then work to put social media sentiment analytics in place to measure success.